Beyond Worlds
by bluefuzzyelf
Summary: A girl who has an ache in her heart she can't identify and the powers to save her world. A boy whose dreams are more like memories of a distant past and a lineage that condemns him. Together, they struggle to stay alive in a ruthless and bloody time, surr


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Title: Rebirth

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Rating: R for violence, language, and sexual comments

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Summary: A girl who has an ache in her heart she can't identify and the powers to save her world. A boy whose dreams are more like memories of a distant past and a lineage that condemns him. Together, they struggle to stay alive in a ruthless and bloody time, surrounded by death and despair. Through it all, they remember a love long lost

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Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by Rumiko Takahashi. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

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Author(ess): bluefuzzyelf

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Prologue

Life. Life has no meaning. It only brings pain. It hurts, living. It makes you bleed. Let me die. Let me leave this world of agony behind. I can feel the blood run down my face, my arms. I want to die. I want to rest. Kill me. Life is not worth it. Let me die.

No. I will not let you die. You haven't known the pure happiness of living. Let me help you.

Why?

Because, Life is precious. Don't throw it away. There is so much to live for. It is so bright. So, so bright.

I cannot see the light.

Not now. But you can. Come back to me.

Why?

You will be happy. Don't you want to be?

No. Happiness has only touched my Life in brief moments. Those with herand those with you. But you and she are gone now. Happiness has fled.

You want to leave? You want to leave behind Life? You want to leave me? I am still here. I want you to be happy. I want you to smile, to laugh, to love. Stay and let me give my love. Let me give my heart to you.

Why do you even care? No one can save me. Let me die.

That's not true. Let me save you. Live.

No.

Inuyasha refused to come back. He was lost in the dark, and so died in it. Kagome went home, devastated. She was broken. She finished high school, even went to college. She found a man she liked, married him, had kids and eventually died. But there was never a day that passed by without her thinking of Inuyasha, or of how she failed to bring him back.

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Now it is the year 2023.

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And Inaki keeps having these dreams

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Chapter One

Inaki jolted awake. It had happened again. That dreamsomeone pleadingsomeone refusing. He could never remember all of it, the memory of it slipping away like sand through his fingers.

He sat up in his bed. The moonlight streamed in through his window, illuminating the room. It was small, as apartments are apt to be, and filled with all sorts of stuff. Neither he nor his roommate were very neat.

Inaki ran a hand through his silver locks. He kept his hair short, most of the time spiked.

__

What was that dream?

Inaki sighed. He lay back down and forced himself into slumber. Tomorrow was the beginning of his junior year at Balisven, and he needed his sleep.

Inaki slammed his hand down on his alarm clock.

"Inaki, dude! Get up!"

"Mph." Inaki tried to bury himself in his pillows.

"Dude!"

"What time is it?"

"Six."

"There's no such thing as six in the morning. Come back and wake me in five hours."

"Very funny. Do I need to get a bucket?" Inaki sat bolt upright. He didn't want a repeat of _that _lovely morning.

"I'm up, I'm up."

"Good. Now, c'mon. Breakfast. You know, food?" Inaki groaned and sat up, pulling on a pair of black loose pants, a black long sleeved shirt and a green tunic over it, with a black sash around his hips. Miroku was similarly dressed, only in white and blue. Both boys had black combat boots.

The two got their schedules after breakfast, terrorizing the young man handing them out. He was obviously new. They had no classes that day, and so spent their morning on the school's roof, observing the people down below scurry around like ants.

"Yes! We have each others' classes," said Yukio, pulling out his schedule. Inaki looked his over, then Yukio's.

"As always." Yukio gave his friend a grin.

"Glad they've learned to just start with us in each others classes. I mean, it makes no sense to give us different schedules when they know we're gonna end up together anyway."

Inaki nodded.

"Watch out, Balisven, the dynamic duo are back!"

Inaki rolled his eyes at his friend, then proceeded to ignore him in favor of looking over the plans for the new cleaning bots. Maybe this year he'd program them to clean with butter.

Rei was running about every which way, collecting papers and books. She was getting rather lost, to tell the truth. Of course, it didn't help that every five seconds she was distracted by another guy coming up to her and making small talk. She was a friendly person, really, and some of the guys were quite attractive, but it was getting old. Rei momentarily lost her balance as someone bumped into her. Catching herself, she grumbled about the impoliteness of some people. Carefully maneuvering through the crowd, she made her way to her dorm building. She walked in, and looked for her dorm number on one of her numerous sheets of paper. It was on the 4th floor. Luckily, there were transporters. She stepped into the white enclosure, said her destination aloud, and felt everything go black. A couple seconds later, the dark receded and she stepped out of the transporter. She looked around a bit, then picked a direction. It was apparently the right one, because she found her room fairly quickly. She quickly swiped her ID card through the machine by the door. A woman's voice rang out.

"_Identified; Rei Hitome, Class: Fighter, Rank: 12; Access Granted_"

Rei wondered idly who her roommate was. Ah well. She'd find out soon enough. She set about unpacking her things. The bots had already brought up her bags.

A few minutes later, as Rei was putting her clothes on her side of the closet, the door opened and a girl stuck her head in.

"Rei?"

"Yep."

"Hi. I'm Ryuko." Rei smiled.

"Pleased to meet you."

"Same here. Man, I hate the way they change the rooms around on us each year," said Ryuko conversationally.

"What?"

"You know, they change our rooms?" Ryuko trailed off. Rei was looking at her confusedly. "Weren't you here last year?"

"Er, no. I just transferred."

"Oh. That's cool."

A commotion down the hall led them both to their door.

"What in the world?"

A group of guys were walking down the corridor, talking and joking loudly. An attractive boy with silver hair stopped and knocked on a door two rooms down from Rei and Ryuko's.

"Hey, Haku, you in there?" said the boy loudly.

"Hai, hai." The door opened. A boy with long reddish hair that hung to his shoulders answered the door. "Hey Inaki. Sup?"

"We're going. Wanna come?" Haku looked over the guys standing behind Inaki. There was Yukio, smiling at any pretty face that walked by, Kaemon, his long black hair down as usual and Akira, his short silver colored hair akin to Inaki's.

"Sure. What'cha doin?" Inaki gave him a 'Duh' look.

"The same thing as every new school day, dope."

"I meant, what are you planning?" The eavesdropping girls exchanged glances.

"We'll tell you on the way. We got some good ones this year." Haku grinned.

"I'm sure you do. Let's go."

Rei was burning with curiosity. What were they going to do?

Rei glanced at Ryuko. "Do you have any idea what they were talking about?" Ryuko shook her head.

"I was only around half of last year. I have no idea what their planning. I know them, though." Ryuko's eyes narrowed. "Stay away from Yukio, the guy with the ponytail. His handswander." Rei smiled at Ryuko's expression.

"I'll keep that in mind."

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Flashback

Rei walked into the office, feeling a bit intimidated. How was he going to take her permanent record? She cringed inside. She really wanted to come to this school.

He had been sitting there in his chair, calmly looking at her. He politely asked her to sit. She plopped into one of the chairs in front of Principal Harris's desk.

"Welcome to Balisven, Rei. A clean slate, that's what you get here." Rei smiled.

"What's past is past. We're not interested in what it says on a piece of paper. Even if it says--whoa."

Rei cringed.

End Flashback

Rei let a smile come across her face. When she had told Ryuko about that, the older girl had nearly fallen off her chair laughing.

Rei's first real day at Balisven had gone really well, considering she knew practically no one. She stuck to Ryuko's side like glue, which puzzled her a bit. Usually she was quite outgoing. She passed it off as the school being so _big_.

"You know, I like it here. In my last school, knowledge was pretty much frowned upon. You had to _work_ to learn anything. But here, I mean, the energy, the collective intelligence-it's like this force, this penetrating force; I can feel my mind opening up, you know, letting the place just thrust into it andspurt knowledgeThat sentence really ended up in a different place than it started out."

Ryuko laughed and shook her head. "You have a great sense of humor."

"I wasn't trying to be funny!"

"I know, that's why I'm laughing."

"Hmph." Rei glanced around. "Where are we going again?"

"Psych. It's across the courtyard and down Hall 32A."

"Still blows my mind that the school is so big the halls need both numbers _and_ letters. I am so going to get lost every day. I'll need to go down Hall 56V and end up going down Hall 56B."

Ryuko laughed again. "You get used to it pretty quick. Professor Lennox, the psych teacher, is supposed to be great. She's like world renowned."

"Do you have to be nowned before you can be renowned?" inquired Rei innocently.

Ryuko rolled her eyes. "Yes, first there is the painful nowing procedure."

The two girls kept walking. As they entered the courtyard, Rei almost gasped. It was huge, and very, very green. Trees were everywhere, big leafy ones with huge trunks and lots of shade. There were a few ponds scattered across the open space, glittering silver and blue in the sunlight. Students, and even a few teachers, were strewn everywhere.

Groups of kids sat under trees, at tables, by the water andin trees? There was a young man, probably about seventeen years old sitting in a tree. He wore black clothes under his green tunic, and Rei recognized his clothes as that of a Fighter Pilot. There was a group of guys below him, and as she squinted at them, she realized that they were the ones who had been at the dorm earlier. How had she missed their Ranks? The boy in the tree moved just enough so she could see his hair was silver.

The one with short black hair was wearing white and blue, garments of a Healer. Another, with long black hair, was wearing the same as the boy in the tree. Haku was wearing the purple and grey of a Fighter, like Ryuko. The other silver hair was not there.

Rei looked around again. She saw a few in the garb of Pilots, but they were blue and black. She saw no one in the red and black she sported.

Her brows furrowed, and she turned to Ryuko.

"Ryuko?"

"Hmm?"

"Why am I the only one in red and black?"

Ryuko looked back at Rei.

"I mean, I was classified as a Fighter, so why aren't I wearing purple and grey, like you?"

Ryuko looked puzzled. Why _was_ she the only one?

"I'm not sure. I hadn't really noticed before. I guess you'll have to ask Principal Harris."

Rei nodded and dismissed it from her mind.

By this time, they were halfway across the courtyard, and not very far from the boys from that morning. As the girls came level with them, Yukio jumped up and bounded over to Ryuko, skidding to a stop just in front of her. Though how he managed a skid on grass was beyond Rei's ability to understand.

"Ah, my dear Ryuko, how much more beautiful you have grown since I last laid eyes upon your lovely form."

Rei blinked at the man's speech. What, did he think they were living in the 18th century?

"Yukio, shut it."

Her friend's response made Rei blink again. She seemed very familiar with him. Rei vaguely remembered Ryuko saying something about wandering hands.

"My dear Lady Disdain, what is it that made you despise my presence so?"

"Yukio, would you _please_ stop talking like you're in a Shakespeare play?"

Rei, Yukio and Ryuko jumped as one. The boy who had spoken was standing behind Yukio, and it was a miracle Rei hadn't seen him. She mentally told herself off for being so unalert. Then she looked and focused her attention on the one with the silver hair.

Then she noticed something. He had dog ears! White, fluffy ones!! On his head!!!

Luckily for her, the guy didn't notice her staring. He was too busy giving an exasperated look to his friend. Rei's mind decided to zone out again, and picked up on other subtleties she hadn't yet noticed. Like the fact that his eyes were gold. And he had claws. Long, sharp ones.

And what she could see from his physiquewell, she was lucky she didn't blush easily. She could appreciate his finely toned muscles visible through his shirt and tunic more than most would. She knew what it took to look like that, and what he must have done to get those. Unfortunately, thinking about him working out was a bad idea. She blushed faintly and stomped on her thoughts. Bad thoughts! Baad thoughts!!!

"Rei?"

Rei jerked, startled.

"Yeah?"

"You okay? You kinda zoned."

"Uh, yeah. Fine. Sorry. What'd I miss?"

"Not much. Just Inaki having a witty exchange with Yukio here. Oh, and me almost knocking him out."

"Whaaat?"

Rei looked around. Yukio was on the grass, looking a little worse for wear. Inaki, as his name appeared to be, was looking at both of them, one eyebrow cocked. Sometime during her spacing, Haku, the long haired dude and the other silver haired dude (who was in a Fighter Pilot's uniform) had also come up.

"He can take it."

Rei looked to find the owner of the voice. It was the Fighter with the black hair. His voice was rich and smooth.

"Oh. Good. I think." Rei prodded the prone boy with her foot.

"Rei, we should get going. We're gonna be late-"

"Wait! Not before introductions, surely!" the black haired youth spoke up. He smiled warmly at Rei. "Hi. I'm Kaemon. The guy with the ears is Inaki," he said, pointing at Inaki. "That's his younger brother over there, Akira." Said person nodded in her direction. "This is Haku," he jerked his head at his slightly shorter companion, "And the stupid one on the ground is Yukio."

Rei nodded to each as they were introduced. "Hi. I'm Rei."

Sango glanced at her watch. "We're going to be late. C'mon Rei."

Rei nodded. "Sorry guys."

Ryuko started off dragging Rei, but soon found she didn't need to anymore.

"You'rebreath."

"Right."

Three minutes later, they rushed into the class and found seats, just seconds before the bells rang.

Rei sank into her chair with a sigh of relief. She and Ryuko exchanged glances and smiled. Then the teacher started class.

"Boy, that was an exciting class, huh?"

"Oh, yeah," Rei said, lacking enthusiasm.

"And that last twenty minutes--it was a revelation. Just laid out everything we needed to know for the final. I'd hate to have missed that."

"Just tell me I didn't snore." Rei yawned.

"You were very discreet. Minimal drool."

"How on earth did you stay awake?"

"Hey, I _did_ actually find it interesting."

"Oh. Weirdo."

"Hey!"

Rei chuckled.

After a bevy of classes in which all you did was sit, Rei was understandably annoyed. She wanted _action_, not sitting around listening to someone talk. She wanted fighting, she wanted training. Stuff that would actually be useful.

Now, it may seem strange that all Rei wanted to do was train, but she had a reason. They all had reasons for being at Balisven. It's main purpose was to educate, of course, it was a school, but it's secondary purpose was to train the youth. Train them to fight in the war.

What war? Why, the war against the demons, of course. Not all demons, as some were good, and had no intention of wiping out the homosapiens, but the evil demons. Known to the Japanese as _youkai_.

The war of humans against demons was started a long time ago, by a demon named Suzu. He thought humans were scum, and that the demons, the youkai, were put on this Earth to destroy them and to take their place in existence. However, to almost everyone's surprise, there were demons who stood up for the humans.

It was a long and bloody battle, filled with death and darkness.

Eventually, Suzu was overthrown by a powerful human. Her name was Calista, meaning most beautiful. She was a priestess, in touch with the magick of the world. She used her powers to destroy Suzu, and many of his minions. Calista did not survive the final battle.

Though there was mourning for their beautiful protector, there was once again safety and peace. Joy to the world.

One young demon, who had thought of Suzu as a father, was filled with hatred for the humans who had killed his mentor. He began the bloodshed once again. More war. More devastation. More death. Renat had created a new hell. They had no Calista this time.

The humans managed to flee to another planet, another Earth. It is there that Balisven, the most prestigious school on New Earth, resides. It is there that the last hope of our race lived and trained for the Last War. And it is there that they searched for their Calista.

- Earth History Textbook

p.879

Rei was not one to sit around. As a little girl, she had been enchanted by the stories of old, the battles and the triumph of her people. She wanted to fight, and she knew that that was her destiny. She was born to battle.

Rei's parents were gone. They had died in that first attack by Renat. They would not have approved of her training to fight, but Rei knew she had to.

The attacks by the demons had died down. The last attack by the humans had dealt a critical blow to the demon army. The demons had quieted, presumably rebuilding their forces.

Rei decided to join Balisven, thought of as the best school on New Earth, to train. She was full of a fiery spirit that would not let her family's death go unavenged.

By the time lunch rolled around, Rei was itching to go outside. Lucky for her, the students had a choice to eat outside or in the canteen.

Rei grabbed her lunch, not really looking at it and raced outside. She found a table, set the food down and proceeded to do a few back flips and cartwheels. She was quite sure she looked ridiculous, but she didn't care. She was _finally _outside!!!

"Uh, Rei?"

"Yah?" Rei straightened back up, tugging on her tunic.

"What're you doing?"

"Back flips. And cartwheels. Why?"

"Oh. No reason. Just thought you had lost your mind or something. How silly of me."

Rei snorted and sat down next to her dark haired friend.

Voices could be heard behind them, steadily getting louder.

"He lived for school. He's still bitter there were only twelve grades." That sounded like Inaki.

"He probably sat in math class thinking, 'There should be more math! This could be mathier!'" That sounded like Haku. Ryuko turned.

"Hey guys. Whatcha talking about?"

"Professor Walsh."

"Ah."

"Hey Rei," said Kaemon, as he slid into the seat across from her. Haku sat next to him, Yukio took the seat next to Ryuko and Inaki took the place next to Rei. Akira sat by Haku. Rei raised an eyebrow. She hadn't thought the table was _that_ big. Maybe they had secret scrunching powers or something.

"Hey Kae. What's up?"

"Not much."

"Has anyone given any thought as to what this green stuff is?" asked Inaki. Rei looked down at her tray.

"I'm avoiding the subject," she said, shuddering.

Yukio piped up. "I think it's kale. Or maybe string cheese."

Kaemon made a disgusted face.

"That is so gross. How do they expect us to eat this?" said Ryuko, poking her food. She jumped when it wriggled. "I think mine's alive."

Akira sniffed carefully. "I'm not so sure I want to try this. I agree with Ryuko. I think it's alive."

Inaki looked at it. Then he shrugged. "Right then. I'm eating around it." He ripped his roll in half and proceeded to chew. "Hey, not half bad!"

"Lucky bastard. Mine bounces." Everyone looked at Haku, who was bouncing his roll on the table.

Rei sighed. "I really wish I had a Twinkie right now"

"A what?" asked a comically confused Kaemon. His cheeks were puffed out with some of the more edible vegetables from his lunch.

"It's a delicious, golden, spongy cake filled with a delightful, white creamy substance of goodness. And the exciting part is, they have no ingredients that a human can pronounce. So they don't leave you with that heavy, _food_ feeling in your stomach," answered Inaki, a dreamy look coming over his face. Rei looked at him.

"I wasn't aware many people knew about Twinkies."

"They were his favorite when he was small." Wow, Akira's third sentence that day! Rei wondered if it was a record.

"Cool. Wish I had one."

"Me too."

Soon, Inaki, Yukio and Haku were discussing the finer points of getting out of class without detention, Ryuko was sprawled on the ground and Akira was reading a book.

Suddenly, Haku looked at his watch and yelped.

"What?" inquired Inaki.

"Um, if we don't want to become blue in about five minutes, we might want to move."

Akira, Yukio, Haku, Kaemon and Inaki all jumped up. Rei and Ryuko followed suit.

"What? What is it?" No one answered her as they all gathered up their things and trooped off towards the canteen. Rei followed them. She caught up to Kaemon and fell into stride next to him.

"You have weird friends," she remarked causally.

"News from the file marked 'duh'." Kaemon smiled at her.

"So, what all this about becoming blue?"

"Oh, Haku thought up another prank. The sprinklers are going to come on any moment now, but the water is going to stain everyone blue."

"Ah. Sounds fun. I used to prank people at my school. I still remember that one time with the tuna and the toilet paper"

Suddenly, Haku was right next to her.

"What was that about tuna and toilet paper?"

"Just an old prank."

"You prank?!"

"Yep."

The shorter red head gave her a big, totally unexpected hug. "Marry me."

"Haku, she isn't gonna marry you. Me, however-" Yukio had sidled over with a sly grin. Before Ryuko could bop him (which Rei had quickly found out was a normal occurrence), Inaki butted in.

"Would you guys stop harassin' her? Gods above, you're like piranhas."

Rei grinned. "Thanks Inaki. I have this great idea that involves oranges and buckets of feathersWhaddya think?"

Haku's answer was another tight hug.

Rei was getting used to her schedule finally, and could make her way around the school with only minor difficulty.

She was in the process of trying to remember which classroom in Hall 26C her Mechanics class was in. She decided that if she couldn't find it, no big loss. She hated mechanics. What was the point? Okay, so she could build a robot. Big whoop. How on earth would that help fight Renat? Attack him with cleaning solution?

Rei was so concentrated on her mental map that she didn't notice him until it was too late. She did, in fact, walk right into him, causing a small road block in the hall.

"Whoops!" Papers flew everywhere, floating down like oversized snowflakes. Rei was on her butt, surrounded by multi-colored folders, staring at Inaki with a ridiculous expression on her face, something akin to embarrassed horrification. Inaki began to laugh.

He stood up, brushed himself off, and extended a hand towards Rei. "You okay?"

She grabbed his hand and pulled herself to her feet.

"Yeah. Just trying to salvage the remaining bits of dignity I might have floating around."

Inaki laughed again and started to help Rei pick up her things. "You should be more careful."

"I can't help it, I got lost."

"Lost?!"

"Yes, lost. There are too many halls. **Way** too many halls."

"Well, what's your next class?"

"Mechanics."

"Oh. We're close, then. I'll walk you."

Rei looked at him, nearly dropping her things again. "Really?"

"Sure. It's close enough that I can get to my next class on time, so why not?"

Rei almost hugged him. She blushed a bit at her own thoughts. "Oh, thank you **so** much!"

Inaki smiled and laughed a bit. "No problem."

He walked her safely to her class, even going as far as to carry some of her books for her. She kept thanking him profusely, eventually causing him to clap a hand over her mouth. Rei blushed again, to her immense annoyance. Ok, so he was cutescratch that, he was drop dead gorgeous, but she did **not** blush. No. Never. She shook her head, trying to forget the image of him standing over her with that smile on his face, holding out his hand for her.

Rei got there just on time, dashing inside and into her seat, right as the bell rang. She sighed in relief.

Rei walked to their table at lunch, the usual crew sitting there, contemplating whether the food was edible or not.

Haku was talking animatedly with Kaemon about something, Ryuko was beating Yukio off with a large stick, Akira was reading and Inaki was poking at his food.

Rei sat down next to him. "Thanks for getting me to class this morning. I would've been screwed if you hadn't helped."

Akira looked up from his book interestedly.

"Sure," said Inaki. "You looked in need, what with you wandering around with that blank look on your face."

Rei scowled. "This place is way to big. Anyway, thanks."

Akira threw a pointed look at Inaki, which Rei missed.

"Again, no problem." Inaki threw a glare towards his brother, which Rei also missed.

"What's for lunch?" Rei asked, looking at her tray. "I wasn't paying attention."

"Hot dog surprisebe still my heart." Inaki made a disgusted face and poked his fork at the brown lumps.

"Call me old fashioned, but I don't want any more surprises in my hot dogs"

Haku was suddenly sitting by her. "Hi!"

"Hey, Haku." Rei threw a bright smile towards the redhead. "What's up?"

"Had an idea."

"Yeah? Spill."

It was a normal lunch hour. Moaning about the food, talking about new pranks to pull and just generally making trouble.

They were a group to fear. In a few short weeks, Rei had been accepted completely, and was now one of their own. All the teachers were wary of them, the other students either staying out of their way or congratulating them on the latest trick they had pulled.

It wasn't strange to find them sparring against each other in one of the gyms, either. Rei usually against Ryuko, Yukio and Kaemon or Haku and Inaki against Akira. Rei always got the strangest feeling that they were holding back each time they sparred. It was unnerving, considering how good they were.

School got better as the weeks wore on. They had more interesting classes. Rei was very happy that they finally seemed to be learning something useful about weapons. They taught them how to load a gun. Quickly. Rei got very good at it. Every type of gun was covered, grenades, knives, even swords. Rei found she liked guns the best.

Hand to hand combat came later, in the winter months. In Mechanics, they learned how to fly, repair, and to some extent, build a ship. The ships themselves were small and compact, built for combat, called Gryphons.

Rei learned readily, soaking in everything that seemed important. She wasn't about to let her parents down.

Rei walked up to Ryuko and Yukio during break. Yukio was avidly watching the upperclassmen girls stretch.

"People scoff at it, but when you see young women, giving their all like this" A pretty brunette slid down into a low split. "Oooh, stretchy. Where was I?"

"You were pretending that seeing scantily clad female fighters in revealing postures was a religious experience," said Ryuko, flipping through her magazine.

"What do you mean, pretending?"

"Hey guys."

They turned.

"Hey Rei. Whatcha doing?"

"Nothing. Ryu, when's our next trip into town?"

"Next Saturday. Why?"

"I wanted the new Carrier book."

Yukio turned to her. "You read all the ones I leant you?"

"Yeah. Remind me to give em back later."

"Sure. We're going to Haku's later, so I'll get them then."

"K. What are Kaemon and Inaki doing?"

Ryuko looked up from her magazine briefly. "They're getting all sweaty."

"They're fencing," corrected Yukio.

"I stand by my terminology."

Rei laughed.

Rei shivered. "Guwah, it's _cold_."

Inaki shot her an amused glance. "Yes, that's what happens when the white stuff falls from the sky."

Rei slanted a halfhearted glare at him. "Ha ha. Aren't you cold?"

Inaki pretended to think about it. "Umno."

Rei shoved him inside the bookstore, disgruntled. "Shut up and go buy me a latte."

Inaki rolled his eye and sauntered off towards the coffee shop. Rei walked straight over to fantasy and searched the books until she found it. "Aha!" she cried out, making a girl near her jump. "Sorry," she apologized, before turning back to the bookshelf and whipping the book out. She sat down right in the middle of the aisle, opened the book and started reading.

She was only a few pages into the book when a hand dropped onto her shoulder and she yelped, whipping her head around.

"Ow! Inaki! Don't do that to me!"

"What! All I did was put my hand on your shoulder!" Inaki protested. Rei glared. "Here's your latte. Vanilla mocha, lotsa foam." Rei glare disappeared.

"Oh, thank you! I owe you one."

Inaki grinned. "I see you found your book." He looked at his watch. "C'mon, we don't have much time left. Go buy it and let's go."

Rei pursed her lips and made a face. "Oh, fine." She set her coffee down as Inaki held out a hand. She took it, hauling herself to her feet and immediately tripped on her own foot and went crashing headlong into Inaki's chest.

Her face immediately flamed.

Inaki raised a slender brow at her. "You okay? That's the second time this week."

Rei looked at the floor and pushed herself on Inaki. "Um, yeah. Just, you know, clumsy." _Apparently only around you, though. Did you happen to know you have a very warm chest?_

Inaki gave her a strange look, but he seemed to accept it. Rei bit the inside of her cheek. "Well, better go buy the book. Yes. That's a good idea." She very nearly ran to the counter, leaving a bemused Inaki standing in the middle of the aisle.

He met her at the counter as she picked up her bag. "Here." He handed her the mocha.

"Thanks," she said, a faint pink tinge appearing on her cheeks. Since when did she blush so easily?!

__

Stupid! No crushes on the handsome youkai! Who has the most adorable ears and solid warm chestAck! Bad thoughts! No!

Rei hit herself on the forehead. Inaki gave her another odd look. "You okay?"

Rei nodded. "Fine."

They walked in silence. A couple of times Inaki brushed against her arm or hand, and Rei would inhale sharply and smile innocently when Inaki looked at her.

They walked back to the meeting place and hopped onto the hover bus, finding their friends and sitting down.

"Have fun?" asked Akira, a sly smile on his face. Inaki whapped him on the head. Yukio looked interestedly between them.

"Yes," said Rei defiantly. "Now, all of you shut up, I'm reading." She opened her new book and slumped into the seat, propping her feet up on the back of Yukio's chair.

Yukio raised his eyebrows, Haku snickered, Kaemon looked affronted, Akira looked back at his own book, Ryuko swallowed a laugh and Inaki blinked.

"Well, fine then," Inaki said and copied Rei, slumping into his seat and putting his feet up, narrowly missing Kaemon's head. Kaemon leveled a glare at Inaki, who smiled sweetly.

Inaki pulled out his music player and his disc case. Inaki put the tiny wireless earbuds in his ears, flipped through the case until he found what he wanted, slid the round palm sized disc into his player and pressed play.

He closed his eyes and leaned back more comfortably, a small smile on his face.

The hover bus spinning wildly out of control took everyone on it by surprise. The explosion a second later threw many into shock.

Rei's eyes were wide, and in seconds she was up, alert and wary as the bus stopped.

A muttered curse from Inaki and then Akira distracted her for a second. A much closer voice let out a small shit'. Rei recognized it as Kaemon.

"We have to get off the bus!"

"What?"

Rei realized that she couldn't hear, a side effect from the loud noise, and neither could anyone else. She tapped Inaki and motioned towards the door.

His gold eyes widened and he leaped at it, tackling the person by it, who happened to be the driver.

Rei clapped her hand on her forehead and pushed Inaki out the door, the other occupants of the bus following.

The group of fighters, now outside with hearing returning, inspected the wreckage of the back of the bus.

"Inaki, you idiot, I was telling you to get out the door, not tackle the poor driver!"

"Don't look at me like that. I'm not the one who needs to brush up on her finger pantomime." Rei rolled her eyes.

__

The bomb must've been right under the bumper, thought Rei, and said so.

Kaemon nodded. "But so far backit makes no sense. If your objective was to kill, why not put the bomb in a place where more people would be?"

Akira frowned. "What if you didn't want to kill anyone?"

"Then why the bomb?"

"Perhaps it is a message.a warning."

Inaki kicked the bumper, no longer hovering and yelped. "Still hot," he said sheepishly. Haku sighed despairingly.

He went over to the bus, where the bomb had resided and bent down, wiping his finger along the ground. It came away black.

Haku lifted his finger to his nose and immediately cringed at the acrid scent.

"Well, we've now established that it was definitely a message or a warning."

We have?" asked Kaemon, looking dubious.

"Yes," Haku replied. "This is miasma residue."

"Miasma leaves a residue?"

"Yes, Rei, it does. And this is it."

"How does that make this a warning?"

"Kaemon, miasma is what Renat uses."

There was a moment of silence before everyone burst into speech at the same time, a jumble of voices in which only a few words were distinguishable, the majority of them being "Renat!" and a colorful display of curses.

"Shut up!" Haku glowered at his friends. "We need to get back to Balisven and tell Harris what happened."

"How?"

Haku looked deadpan at Kaemon and pointed at the wireless radio on his hip.

"Oh."

Haku radioed for help, and by the time they arrived back at school, the teachers were waiting for them.

"Thank goodness you're all safe," said the medical care teacher, Professor Bowden. Professor Cawdor looked rather sternly at them.

"I wonder," he said, "Why your hover bus was the only one that was targeted."

The group of friends looked around at each other, confusion apparent in their eyes. Rei bit her lip. "Maybemaybe it was me, sir. My-my parents were very active in the fight against Renat. It was the reason they-they died. So maybe.he might be going after me?"

"Don't be arrogant, child," he chided. "I think that it was in fact someone else in that bus he was after." Cawdor sent a significant look towards Inaki.

"Me, sir? But-" Inaki stopped talking and look of resignation appeared on his face. "Right."

Professor Linden glanced sadly at the hanyou. "You all had better go up to the principal's office. He's expecting you."

As one, they nodded and started for Harris's.

Principal Harris covered his eyes with his hands and sighed deeply. Not only did he have an new transfer student who's permanent record was not exactly singing her praises, Renat was coming after one of his students personally.

It was well known that Inaki was a reserved person to everyone one outside of his personal circle. It was also well known that the boy had a history of violence. He was rude, quick tempered and rash, as well as a brilliant pilot and possibly the best shot with a gun.

He was also, unfortunately, the son of a youkai and a human. His father, a strong and kind man with no prejudices towards humans, fell in love with a woman whose magick was so powerful she was able to beat off Renat several times before the end.

Renat knew the power that Malacai and Iyazoi had. He knew also that they could bring him down, and so hunted them. They fought against him time and time again, and won. All except the last time.

Renat had shown up while they were on vacation. He had killed Malacai in his bedroom, and spread his blood over the walls. Then he went after Iyazoi. She and her seven year old son were in the den, playing together. Renat was the last thing they were expecting. Renat had laughed, it was said, as he killed her, in front of her son's eyes.

Inaki had emerged hours later, drenched in blood and in shock. There were some who muttered that the boy himself had murdered his parents, though it was common knowledge that the culprit was Renat.

Principal Harris had a soft spot for Inaki, recognizing in the hanyou the same thirst to prove himself that he had had as a boy. He pitied him, for being the target of such a cruel man. And he knew if Inaki wanted to emerge from this war alive, he would have to put his heart and soul into it.

He didn't want that for anyone.

A/N: Well. Yes. That was.a long chapter. And who know, by the time I actually post this, it could be longer! Right now, it's at 18 pages. Well, 17 and an eighth. Not including the beginning intro and summary thingy.

Quotes:

"What's past is past. We're not interested in what it says on a piece of paper. Even if it says--whoa." -Buffy the Vampire Slayer

"You know, I like it here. In my last school, knowledge was pretty much frowned upon. You had to _work_ to learn anything. But here, I mean, the energy, the collective intelligence-it's like this force, this penetrating force; I can feel my mind opening up, you know, letting the place just thrust into it andspurt knowledgeThat sentence really ended up in a different place than it started out." -Buffy the Vampire Slayer

"Do you have to be nowned before you can be renowned?" inquired Rei innocently.

Ryuko rolled her eyes. "Yes, first there is the painful nowing procedure." -Buffy the Vampire Slayer

"Boy, that was an exciting class, huh?"

"Oh, yeah," Rei said, lacking enthusiasm.

"And that last twenty minutes--it was a revelation. Just laid out everything we needed to know for the final. I'd hate to have missed that."

"Just tell me I didn't snore." Rei yawned.

"You were very discreet. Minimal drool." -Buffy the Vampire Slayer

"He lived for school. He's still bitter there were only twelve grades." That sounded like Inaki.

"He probably sat in math class thinking, 'There should be more math! This could be mathier!'" -Buffy the Vampire Slayer

"Has anyone given any thought as to what this green stuff is?" asked Inaki. Rei looked down at her tray.

"I'm avoiding the subject," she said, shuddering.

Yukio piped up. "I think it's kale. Or maybe string cheese." -Buffy the Vampire Slayer

"It's a delicious, golden, spongy cake filled with a delightful, white creamy substance of goodness. And the exciting part is, they have no ingredients that a human can pronounce. So they don't leave you with that heavy, _food_ feeling in your stomach," -Buffy the Vampire Slayer

"Hot dog surprisebe still my heart." Inaki made a disgusted face and poked his fork at the brown lumps.

"Call me old fashioned, but I don't want any more surprises in my hot dogs" -Buffy the Vampire Slayer

"People scoff at it, but when you see young women, giving their all like this" A pretty brunette slid down into a low split. "Oooh, stretchy. Where was I?"

"You were pretending that seeing scantily clad female fighters in revealing postures was a religious experience," said Ryuko, flipping through her magazine.

"What do you mean, pretending?" -Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Ryuko looked up from her magazine briefly. "They're getting all sweaty."

"They're fencing," corrected Yukio.

"I stand by my terminology." -I don't remember

"Don't look at me like that. I'm not the one who needs to brush up on her finger pantomime." -Buffy the Vampire Slayer


End file.
